"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

I read what I consider to be not only the best graphic novel that I've read so far (I'm only at 4), but it's also quite possibly my favorite book of all time.

Blankets by Craig Thompson is a beautiful, sad coming-of-age story with some of the most amazing art. Every page is incredible. It's long, about 500 pages, but goes by very quickly (and when I say that, it's fucking true. I read slower than anybody). I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone. I'm going to pick up his other two, Goodbye Chunky Rice and a memoir on his trip to Paris.

I read what I consider to be not only the best graphic novel that I've read so far (I'm only at 4), but it's also quite possibly my favorite book of all time.

Blankets by Craig Thompson is a beautiful, sad coming-of-age story with some of the most amazing art. Every page is incredible. It's long, about 500 pages, but goes by very quickly (and when I say that, it's fucking true. I read slower than anybody). I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone. I'm going to pick up his other two, Goodbye Chunky Rice and a memoir on his trip to Paris.

Pass.

Just tell me what it's about so I can bring it up in conversations.

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Let's go to a motel. We don't have to do anything -- we could just swim.

I dunno who's nerdier:1) the guy reading comicbooksor2) the guy who just wants to pretend that he reads comicbooks to impress his fellow comicbook reading friends.or3) guy who is typing this post on a pleasant friday night.

"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

I read what I consider to be not only the best graphic novel that I've read so far (I'm only at 4), but it's also quite possibly my favorite book of all time.

Blankets by Craig Thompson is a beautiful, sad coming-of-age story with some of the most amazing art. Every page is incredible. It's long, about 500 pages, but goes by very quickly (and when I say that, it's fucking true. I read slower than anybody). I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone. I'm going to pick up his other two, Goodbye Chunky Rice and a memoir on his trip to Paris.

After finishing Anna Karenina, I've decided to take a break, however brief, from the traditional novel.

"Illustrated novels," they call them.A beautiful art style and exceptionally written.I recommend this to any and every one.

They also have their own "indie" soundtrack that the kiddies are sure to love!

wow i started reading this and then remembered seeing the cover here before. i'm about a third of the way through and have made my own soundtrack to it (smog, cat power, bonnie 'prince' billy, 13 & God, beth orton). should i steal the one u posted? does it add an element of self-consciousness to it? this is by far the fastest and easiest read i've had all year, the pages practically turn themselves. well i've enjoyed it a lot and will try to post once i'm done, so i don't care if i just jinxed it, i've got about an hour left in my playlist.

120 pages in just under two hours according to my playlist, i guess i'm reading it slow.. (i'd read 50 the nite before just waiting for letterman!) even at 2 pages a minute this massive thing would give u more than 4.5 hours of entertainment, with half the effort of a normal book. yeah it's a good break from the conventional novel, it's funny u had come off Anna Karenina cos i'm taking a break from Crime and Punishment.. comparable? i guess we'll never know.

Yeah, I read it in a day or two. The fastest for me in a while. I think the only other novels that I'd read that fast were Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Karenina took me months, but soooo worth it.As far as the soundtrack goes, well, it fits the mood to a T, to me.You can preview three of the tracks on the author's site:Doot Doot Garden

oh yeah i can see that working. too late now i finished it yesterday. amazing read, i second your recommendation to everyone.

it's weird, the weather right now is completely inappropriate, since basically the whole book is set in this snow-covered winter, i finished it on the hottest day of the year. i'm not even kidding, it was (as right now) at least 100° F. funny cos at one point craig's brother Phil cries in agony during a summer sequence about it being that hot.

i was saddened by some developments later in the book, but ultimately it's a life affirming tale of faith and redemption, the kind i like!

I was taking a Narrative Illustration class this summer, and thought I'd dive as deep as I can into reading the authors the prof mentioned.Some of us are familiar with this author, at least:

Good-bye, Chunky Rice - Craig ThompsonIt's short and cute. Read it in one sitting. Not too much say about it. It's no Blankets, of course.

Summer Blonde - Adrian TomineA collection of short stories, can't remember how many, exactly. More mature subject matter than the previous. The prof seems to think alot of Tomine, but I thought this was just alright.

I re-read the Akira series. The art is really quite wonderful and the story's very different from the movie. The translation's a bit sketchy and borders on the side of cheese every now and then, but I recommend it.

Tales From the Farm - Jeff LemireNice simple style. Quick read. First in an auto-biographical trilogy, if I'm not mistaken.

Black Hole - Charles BurnsThis book was a monster and a joy to read. Beautiful thick, dark art. Creepy. Lots of sex. Lots of finely sculpted nudity. Takes place in 70s, in High School, and involved promiscuous teens contracting a strange STD that causes various deformations.

Good stuff.

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We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

i thought it was pretty funny like with the nuns (maybe that's from the second book), and the style itself always compliments the tone of the narrative.. whatever that means. it reminded me of maus in the way it mixed important historical background with an autobiographical story without letting the emotional thread of her character succumb to the arguably bigger political picture. maus was more amazing in this regard of course.

oh and it's got that basic parents/child relationship of sacrifice and redemption which is pretty much my favourite theme of all time. although i did think she was a bit of an idiot in Austria (again, probly book 2). it's been made into an animated feature which won the jury prize in cannes, so, there's that.

I've read Persepolis 1 and 2 as well, and I'd certainly recommend them. If you're thinking about it (which you seem to be), go ahead and read them. It won't take more than a couple of days to get through them.

The simple, hard images complement the tone of the book, which is chiefly interested in irony and contrast. A lot of that irony and contrast is shown through the different cultures, and Marji's understanding and comprehension of what's going on around her. A lot of power is generated with this approach, and it can go from humorous to devastating in a snap.

The emotion of her personal story and her family is a good balance to the harder elements that I mentioned above. As P suggested, it doesn't get sappy and sentimental, but rather lends an appropriate humanity that adds to the big picture.

Satrapi does a good job of portraying her own coming of age in a truthful way, not shying away from the embarrassment and confusion that we know all too well. And yup, I agree with P that Austria must've been one of the more idiocy-concentrated times in her life. Satrapi would probably agree with that, too.

It's a good book, though it felt a bit limited to be a great book. As I said, it takes about 2 or 3 days to read, and Satrapi can really only summarize and show the key moments of her adolesence. She chooses wisely which parts of her life to incorporate, and tells those stories well, but you don't (and maybe it's impossible in this form) get the full weight of a life that you can get with novels, in which you must spend much more time with the characters.

It's very much worth the time it takes to read, though, and is even, in some parts, eye-opening. I look forward to the movie.